It is good to see another industry leader in the role of chairman of the Strategic Forum and we should all support James Wates in his work (10 March, page 16).

Perhaps what comes over in the article inevitably reflects abbreviation but we should be concerned if any review of the organisation's activities might influence the original clearly-set agenda, which came out of Sir John Egan's report Accelerating Change. This contained a number of targets and deliverables. Perhaps the most important target refers to 50% of the industry's output (by value) being delivered by integrated teams by the end of 2007. We have 21 months to go. Hopefully, the priority of the forum remains to monitor, facilitate, cajole and encourage the industry to achieve this target.

Trevor Hursthouse, chairman, Specialist Engineering Contractors Group

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